


She Has Found Out All of Truth at Last

by Alexandria (heartfullofelves)



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Aromantic, Aros at a wedding, Bisexuality, F/F, Pete's World, Tumblr Prompt, romance repulsion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-07-12 16:10:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7112968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartfullofelves/pseuds/Alexandria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose feels uncomfortable at her parents’ wedding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Has Found Out All of Truth at Last

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by anonymous on Tumblr, who requested, “Something cute with Rose/Clara? Maybe have one or both be aro?”
> 
> I’m aro myself, so this was pretty cool to write! 
> 
> Title taken from Bliss Carman’s Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics.

“You may now kiss the bride.”

As the guests erupted in applause, Rose had to force a grin at her parents’ display of affection, even as she joined in with the clapping. She was happy for her mum and Pete – _Dad –_ and happy for what the renewal of vows meant for the family, but so far she’d felt nauseous at every romantic word or action during the ceremony. Come to think of it, it wasn’t just this wedding that made her feel this way; romance had never appealed to her the way it seemed to do to everyone else in the world.

_Stop it._ She cut off her own thought process, unwilling to consider the implications. _Everyone_ loved romance, and just because she’d travelled in space and time with the most brilliant man in the world, and had ended up in a universe that wasn’t her own, it didn’t mean she was any different to them. She was an ordinary girl in her twenties who was looking for love, just like everyone else.

The rest of the ceremony passed without any major incidents, but she still had the strange sensation in her stomach. She tried to ignore it, but after the speeches, she had no qualms about draining more than one glass of bubbly. The champagne transformed the unpleasant feeling into a lighter one. She could do this.   

When it was time for the happy couple to dance, which Jackie and Pete did with much enthusiasm and little skill but lots of laughs, Rose cheered them on like everyone else – they deserved that much from her – but planted herself at the punch table and kept her hands full with drink and snacks.

“Enjoying the wedding?”

Rose jumped. A pretty brunette had materialised in front of her, and she hurried to swallow the last of her fruit kebab out of politeness. Her answering grin and nod were a bit wooden, but with any luck, she’d pass as being as into all the amorous displays across the dancefloor as the couples themselves were.

“Yeah, same,” the other girl sighed, parking her bum on the table and crossing her ankles in a conflicting show of feminine etiquette. “I can’t stand weddings, truth be told,” she piped. “Other people’s love, thrown in your face? Forget it. Romance just doesn’t interest me.”

Rose put down her glass and kebab skewer and studied her likeminded companion. “What about for yourself?” she asked, despite it being forward of her to probe. “Do you ever want a relationship?”

The other girl looked back at her with equal intensity in her brown eyes. “No. Not the sort that ends in this, anyway,” she gestured at the room.

Rose’s face burst into a grin. “Neither do I,” she laughed. “I thought I did, but now I’m starting to think that maybe it was just because of the expectations, y’know?”

“It’s quite possible,” replied the brunette, returning the smile. “I’m so glad I found a fellow aromantic, and at a wedding, too! I’m Clara, by the way,” she introduced herself, sticking out a hand. “Family friend on the groom’s side.”

“I’m Rose. Daughter of the bride and groom.” Rose shook the proffered hand. “Sorry, what did you call us?”

Clara stiffened. “Oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have put a label on you like that, I just assumed…”

Rose held up her hand to interrupt her floundering. “It’s alright, I just wanted to know what the word was. Did you say aromatic?”

Clara snorted. “Aromantic. Although I’m quite aromatic tonight, just sniff my perfume.” She shoved her wrist in Rose’s face.

Rose giggled, and tried to push the arm away, but Clara kept insisting, “I’m aromatic, go on, smell me,” until Rose took a dramatic sniff and pronounced Clara an aromatic aromantic.

Once they’d stopped laughing, Rose sat up on the table on the other side of the punchbowl to Clara. “So I don’t like romance, and I don’t want romance. I’m aromantic,” she stated, adjusting her pink skirt and swinging her legs.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to force a label on you that you don’t want, but you could be, yeah,” replied Clara. “Do you get crushes on people? Separate from wanting to be friends or necessarily sleep with them? I mean, wanting to hold hands with them while going for a walk on the beach at sunset and declare eternal love for them?”

Rose sighed and looked at her feet. “I don’t think so. There were a couple of… It doesn’t matter now. No, I just wanted to be with them, but not like that. When I was in school, I made up a few people when the topic of crushes came up.”

“Ah, that sounds familiar,” Clara nodded. “All through secondary and uni, I was making up names of crushes just to fit in. I even asked my best friend to marry me, when I was eleven. She and the other girls called me a lesbian for the rest of the year. I was _terrified_ of telling anyone when I realised I was bi.”

Rose glanced up at that. “I’ve always wondered…”

“Yeah? Go on.”

“What it would be like to kiss a girl,” she mumbled.

Clara grinned, and leant over the punchbowl. “Wonder no longer.” She pressed her lips against Rose’s.

Rose parted her lips without thinking, and the kiss deepened. When Clara pulled away, they were both smiling. “That was nice,” admitted Rose. “More than nice, actually. It was pretty great. I still don’t want a relationship, though.”

“Yeah.” Clara cocked her head to one side. “I only did that because I like you, you know. I don’t want to be used for my sexuality.”

“No, of course not. Sorry, I didn’t mean to...” Rose bit her lip.

“It’s okay, I chose to do it,” Clara reassured her with a hand on her arm.

Rose looked down at Clara’s hand and mumbled, “But I wouldn’t mind doing it again, without any concept of, y’know, romance.”

“Well, Rose, the evidence before me leads me to believe that the word _aromantic_ is yours to use, if you want to. Nobody’s making you.”

“Thanks,” she smiled, and covered Clara’s hand with her own. “You’ve been a real help.”

“You’re welcome. By the way, if you were trying to ask me something there, the answer’s yes. I’ll be your gal pal.” Clara winked.

Rose frowned. “Oh!” She grinned at her new friend as understanding dawned.

Clara smirked, then hopped off the table, patting down her dark purple dress. “Do you want to dance?” she asked, holding out her hand. The music had changed from ballroom to modern. “No romo,” she added, seeing Rose’s hesitation.

That got Rose giggling again. “No romo,” she echoed, “I like that. Yeah, let’s dance.”

So they did.


End file.
